


oculus reparo

by unsungillumination



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Harry Potter AU, Hogwarts AU, M/M, Quidditch Rivals AU, goro (coping), yeah we're doing this in 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 09:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18028880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unsungillumination/pseuds/unsungillumination
Summary: anyone you asked would tell you the same story. amamiya and akechi were friends: inseparable, almost, to the point they were in almost nonstop trouble most mornings for squeezing in at each other's tables and all but ignoring the banners over their own - until one day they weren't, and nobody had seen them go near each other for weeks.with the final match of the inter-house quidditch cup fast approaching and the two of them on opposing teams, it would be a fair assessment to say that things had gotten... well, a little tense between them. just a bit.





	oculus reparo

**Author's Note:**

> i know. it's 2019. please accept me for who i am

   Anyone you asked would tell you the same story: Amamiya and Akechi were friends; inseparable, almost, to the point they were in almost nonstop trouble most mornings for squeezing in at each other's tables and all but ignoring the banners over their own - until one day they _weren't_ , and nobody had seen them go near each other for weeks.

   And anyone who asked would _receive_ the same story. "Amamiya and I are busy," Akechi said, two, three, ten times and growing steadily cooler by the repeat. "The championship game is soon, and we both have to train so we won't let our Houses down, that's all." And you'd get a smile so chilly you'd half resolve to ask him for help with your Charms homework - it was Freezing this week.

   "Since when do _you_ two care about your Houses?" Nobody but Makoto Niijima had been brave enough to ask this, and nobody was surprised: Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had, historically, always gotten on pretty well - but since Niijima and Akechi respectively had gotten their claws on the prefectship the House rivalries had skyrocketed. The two got on with the sort of vicious comradery that came with fierce loyalty and an exclusive right to set each other alight at any time.

   "I've always been loyal to my House, of course," Akechi said smoothly, and surreptitiously made Makoto’s toad, which they were supposed to be Transfiguring into mice, grow three sizes and honk like a goose.

   Some whispered Akechi had studied extensively the delicate and near-magical art of telling the perfect lie. Others declared, though not openly, on pain of death, that he was just a bitch.

   Not even Akechi’s lies, however, could cover the simple evidence of the eyes, and this was that Slytherin’s esteemed Quidditch Captain had carefully avoided even so much as setting eyes on golden boy Goro Akechi for weeks. And Akechi was looking increasingly sour, as Amamiya’s face grew increasingly downcast to match.

 

* * *

 

   “You could talk to him,” Futaba suggested, handing Yusuke another three eggs. Yusuke promptly turned them purple and started squeezing them over the paper.

   Goro turned a page. “To whom?”

   “To _Ren-kun_ ,” Futaba cooed, going sickening and earning a glare.

   An egg exploded in Yusuke’s fist. “Wonderful,” he said, delighted, and handed Goro the second. “Will you help me, Goro?”

   “You want me to break an egg in the palm of my hand? I didn’t think that was possible.”

   Yusuke, hand covered in purple egg, just looked at him.

   Goro relented and squeezed the egg.

   When nothing had happened for several minutes, he looked back at Futaba and said, “I don’t sound like that.”

   “ _Ohhh, Ren-kun_ ,” Futaba simpered, levitating two more eggs over Yusuke’s head, which went unnoticed. “ _You are SOOOO fascinating, hee-hee-hee_.”

   “Stop it,” said Goro, annoyed.

   “ _Ren-kun, Ren-kun, tell me more about your Charms homework, oh, Ren-kun, I’ve never met anyone like you!_ ”

   The egg burst. Goro’s face was stormy.

   “We’re not speaking right now,” he said tightly.

   Futaba collapsed backward onto the clean part of the paper while Goro cleaned the mess off his hand with a wave of his wand. Yusuke idly traced the outline of her with his own, leaving a trail of scorch marks in her impression. “You _could_ , though,” she said.

   Goro stood up. “I think I’m going to do some training.”

   “But Ren-kun isn’t on the field right now,” said Futaba. “What’s the point?”

   “The _point_ ,” said Goro, “is that the final match is soon, and I intend to win it for Ravenclaw House.”

   “Oh, like you care. You just want to gaze into his _beautiful, stormy eyes_.”

   “They are beautiful,” Yusuke remarked helpfully.

   “Yeah, we _all know Amamiya is beautiful_ , Inari.”

   “Of course I care,” Goro snapped. “And stop being so ridiculous or I’ll take points.”

   “Off of -” Futaba adopted an affected accent - “ _Ravenclaw House_? Where’s your house pride, Akechi-senpai?” and Goro shot her a dirty look and slipped out of the common room to cackles and miscellaneous egg noises.

 

* * *

 

   “Do you maybe want to cool off,” Ann called meekly, kicking another stray shot further away from the goal. Goro dove to snatch the Quaffle out of the air. “I mean, no offense, but you seem kind of mad, Goro-kun.”

   “Go again,” Goro said, and hurled it straight at Ann’s chest.

   “ _Ow_ ,” she complained, catching it anyway. “Goro-kun, you aimed that at _me_.”

   “Yeah?”

   “ _You’re supposed to aim at the goal_ ,” she yowled, chucking it back at his head. He missed the catch and it knocked him aside. “Sorry!”

   “It’s fine, I deserved that,” he sighed, and dove to grab it again.

   From his new position below her he tossed it up a third time, catching her off guard and slipping through the hoop before she could swivel to stop it. “Wow, Goro-kun, if you can pull that off during the game you’ll be a shoo-in for the Cup.”

   “It’s an unexpected angle,” he agreed, drifting back up to smirk at her. “If I can get it past you, I should have no problem with the Slytherin Keeper.”

   She cooed at him, swooping to hug him on his broom. “I know a Slytherin keeper for you,” she chirped, and dipped away again before he could smack her.

   “I came here to forget about that.”

   “Shouldn’t have called me for help, then!”

   “I have a life outside of him,” Goro said, looking strained and slightly like a kicked Crup. “It’s like no-one believes otherwise, these days.”

   Ann relented. “Oh, I’m just teasing,” she sighed, coming back to tug at the end of his broom. “Come on, come with me back to the common room, I’ve got Butterbeer stashed in my sheets.”

   “You don’t have to hide Butterbeer, it’s not illegal.”

   “But it’s exciting!”

   Goro softened a bit. “I shouldn’t,” he said reluctantly. “I’m a prefect -”

   “Oh, _boo_ -”

   “A _Ravenclaw_ prefect - and I’m in your common room enough as it is -”

   Ann threw her arms in the air and flipped on her broom, hanging upside down by her legs.

   “ _Fuck_ House divisions,” she announced, twintails pointing down like a broken trident.

   He laughed at her.

   “Alright. Let’s get back on the ground before you fall and crack your skull.”

   She flipped back upright. “Love you! Can you sneak into the kitchen for me?”

   “What for?”

   “For _gold_.” She swatted him playfully as they drifted back down to the pitch. “For food, dummy. The elves promised me a pie last time… Oh, and Okumura got more shit from home if you want some frou-frou stuff...”

   “Is she going to be there? I don’t think she likes me in your dorms.”

   “Oh, she won’t care.” Ann leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked. “And no Amamiya-kuns in sight.”

   Goro curled his lip at her. “You’re awful at forgetting he exists.”

   “I’m rooting for you! So will you sneak into the kitchen?”

   “I don’t have to sneak,” said Goro. “I’m on prefect business.”

   She swooned at him, doe-eyed. “Babe, I love it when you abuse your power,” and he shoved her aside.

 

* * *

 

   “Don’t be nervous,” said Futaba.

   “I’m not.”

   “If you get nervous, you’ll die,” said Futaba.

   “I won’t. And I’m not.”

   “You haven’t touched your pumpkin juice,” Yusuke observed.

   “Yes, it’s poisoned,” said Goro, reading the paper.

   “By who?” Yusuke asked, astonished. Goro cut eyes at him before picking up his goblet and taking a swig. “Goro!”

   “It’s not poison, Inari,” sighed Futaba. “Except by Goro being an _idiot_.”

   “Don’t talk to me like that, I’m a prefect.”

   “A nervous one,” said Futaba, and Goro looked like he was about to stand up and leave. “Are you gonna go talk to Amamiya?”

   “Who?” asked Goro primly, prompting sniggers down the table. “Say, wouldn’t it be nice to talk without being eavesdropped on, Futaba?”

   The third years alongside them became very absorbed in their toast.

   “You should talk to him, you know,” said Yusuke. “He’s been smiling less and less since your falling out. It’s truly a shame.”

   “Inari documented it in his sketchbook, like a weirdo.”

   “I’m not a weirdo,” said Yusuke, offended. “I’m an artist.”

   “Yeah, a weirdo. Can I turn your juice into a slug?”

   “Okay.” Yusuke slid her his goblet.

   “You draw him?” asked Goro.

   “He’s beautiful,” said Yusuke simply, and Goro, who didn’t know how to answer this, took a very large gulp of his pumpkin juice and choked on it.

   At the Slytherin table, Amamiya was sitting quietly with his Kneazle wound around his shoulders. Morgana had never liked Goro much. The feeling, Goro thought, was mutual, but for the mandatory exception of the squishy beans on Morgana’s paw pads.

   The observation that they were squishy (and all necessary experimentation thus attached) had not much improved Morgana’s opinion of Goro, as he now hissed every time Goro so much as raised a finger in his presence.

   Goro felt he could live with this.

   Ren did not look over at the Ravenclaw table once, which was slightly harder to live with. It had been a key point in Goro’s feelings for Ren that Ren never looked away from him when they spoke, or indeed anytime he could help it; Goro had grown accustomed to glancing over to his singular focus, and the directness of Ren’s gaze was seared into Goro’s memory.

    _This_ , he was altogether unfamiliar with; the whites of Ren’s eyes as he looked down at the table, his ( _fine, Futaba_ ) stormy-gray irises downcast, his attention directed elsewhere. Anywhere but Goro.

   Ren’s eyes were so much prettier, Goro thought, when you saw them straight-on, when they were looking back.

   He was smacked out of his musing, quite literally, as Ann appeared suddenly by the Ravenclaw table and pushed his head into his bacon. “Good luck today!” she said cheerfully.

   “Thanks,” said Goro, face now smeared with bacon grease.

   Makoto was there too, smiling more subduedly at her arm. “Don’t let me down then, Akechi-kun,” she said briskly, adopting a rather severe look. “If Gryffindor couldn’t take the win today, then at the very least you’d better not let those Slytherin bastards take it.”

   He sent her back the beaming smile he knew she hated. “You can count on me, Niijima-san,” he said, and revelled in her obvious annoyance. “Did I see you at the Slytherin table earlier, Ann-chan?”

   “Um!” Ann fluttered for a moment and knocked over Yusuke’s goblet; a large slug oozed out of it. “I just - you know, I thought I should wish Amamiya-kun luck too! He’s all alone over there…”

   At this moment, Amamiya-kun was actually very much not alone. Sakamoto had taken Morgana’s place draped over Ren’s shoulders, red scarf dripping tassels down his forehead, grinning and slapping him on the back. Okumura, too, was hovering over them, although she seemed more absorbed in rubbing Morgana’s face than in anything Ren or Sakamoto were saying.

   “It’s alright,” Goro said to Ann, adopting the airs of a noble most dearly pained. “You can’t help your kindness.”

   “Hufflepuff pride,” Ann grinned, and did a peace sign.

   “There are no cameras around,” said Futaba.

   “House divisions are all but arbitrary,” Goro sniffed. “Take responsibility for your own traits, will you?”

   “I have to agree,” said Makoto. “After all, I still think you should have been put in Slytherin.”

   “Take that back, Niijima-san,” said Goro pleasantly, but Makoto just waved at him and slipped back around to her table.

   “Are you ready for the match?” asked Ann.

   “Oh, yes,” replied Goro, who had not slept a single wink the night prior. “I’ve never anticipated anything more. I think it’ll go fine, don’t you?”

 

* * *

 

   “You look like shit,” his captain told him in the changerooms.

   “Thanks.”

   “Hey, Akechi-kun,” said one of their Beaters. “You and Amamiya aren’t still having that fight, are you?”

   “There’s no fight,” said Goro.

   The Beater shrugged. “Hey, I don’t care,” he said. “Long as it doesn’t get in the way of the game.”

   “It won’t,” said Goro, “because there’s no fight.”

   “Okay,” said their Seeker, eyeing him. “If you say so.”

   “I do,” said Goro.

   “Okay,” said the Seeker.

   “Okay,” said Goro.

   “Guys, shut up,” said the captain, annoyed. “Let’s go wait by the pitch.”

   The team all muttered their assent, except Goro, who said, “I’ll meet you there in a moment, shall I?”

   Their captain looked at him for a moment, but then shrugged and said, “Sure, Akechi. Don’t lose focus, yeah?”

   “Never,” he said, smiling back. “Take my broom, will you? I won’t be long.”

   His team gone, Goro looked around. The House changing rooms were split by tarps and coloured poles; ostentatious, Goro thought privately, and approved.

   He slipped now through the tarps, to find the ones clad in green and silver.

   “What are you doing here?” asked the Slytherin Keeper, staring at him in bewilderment.

   “Hello,” said Goro.

   “This isn’t your changeroom!”

   “I know,” Goro said patiently. “I’m already changed, see? I’m looking for someone.”

   Still looking warily at him, the team parted to reveal Ren frowning at the whiteboard. There were stick figures drawn on it; Ren had never been much of an artist.

   “Hey, captain, cover that up, will you?” one of the Chasers hissed. Ren looked up, noticed Goro, and hastily knocked the whole board to the floor.

   “Smooth,” said a Beater.

   “It’s covered,” offered the other Beater.

   “I’d like to speak to your captain, if you don’t mind,” said Goro, and they all looked at Ren, who shrugged.

   They shrugged back. “Well, see you out there, I guess,” muttered the Keeper, and they filtered out to wait by the pitch.

   Goro looked at Ren. Ren looked at the floor.

   “Ren,” Goro said gently.

   “What,” said Ren, still looking at the floor.

   Goro bit his lip, and looked away.

   After a moment, Ren sighed. “Sorry,” he said, more quietly. “What is it?”

   Goro hesitated.

   “What is it?” Ren asked again.

   When Goro looked back up, Ren was looking right at him. He looked fine in his Quidditch robes, although Goro not-so-privately found the green tacky on anyone else. The silver brought out his eyes. The green did not make him look like a frog. Ren was unique, in this respect, and in several others.

   “Goro?” asked Ren, who did not look like a frog, and made Goro’s life all the more difficult for it.

   Goro took a step toward him and Ren did not step back, although he looked like he wanted to.

   “Just tell me I’m not the only one who hates this,” Goro mumbled, so quietly he knew Ren couldn’t hear.

   “What?”

   Goro took another step closer, and kissed him.

   For a long moment, Ren was frozen under his touch. Goro took Ren’s face in his hands; he was standing tall, though not taller than Goro, a fact which Goro again not-so-privately took a good deal of unearned satisfaction. He held his broom rigidly in his right hand, in what Goro suspected was now a white-knuckled grip. The sharp intake of breath on contact had felt like a relief of some sort, although Ren’s body had gone tense the moment Goro had touched him.

   Then the broom clattered to the floor and Ren was kissing him back. Arms wound tight around his neck and shoulders and firm hands braced against the back of his head; Ren relaxed into him, lips soft against his own. Ren sighed, relief and contentment and something else he seemed almost drunk on mingling in his breath, and Goro pulled away.

   Ren’s eyes stayed closed for a moment longer, still flushed, lips parted.

   “Goro,” he said.

   “Good luck today,” Goro said softly, letting his hand linger another second on Ren’s arm, before slipping back out to meet his teammates.

 

* * *

 

   He felt Ren’s eyes on him from the moment they stepped on the pitch, but it was his turn to look away this time. Goro cast a benign smile around the stands and kicked off the ground to hover in formation; he felt, at this moment, quite on top of the world, teetering upon a tall precipice and never looking down.

 

* * *

 

   They won. And by no small margin. By the time Ravenclaw’s Seeker rose, fist clenched triumphantly around the Snitch to roaring cheers and grinning like a madman, the scores had not been tied up since whistleblow.

   “Good game,” said their captain to Ren, once they had a chance to wade through the swarming crowd, and Ren nodded and shook his hand with the requisite amount of smiling sportsmanship. His eyes were once again on Goro at every available moment, as Goro wanted, as he’d craved these past weeks, but Goro now persisted in looking away, beaming around at his teammates and pumping his fist in the air for the crowd. The last four goals had been his; the Slytherin Keeper was nothing special and besides, Goro had felt untouchable the whole time.

   On the ground, though, Ren cornered him before they could enter the changerooms.

   “Did you do that on purpose?” he demanded.

   Goro laughed. “What, win?” he asked gaily. His teammates, who had paused alongside Ren’s to listen in, laughed with him. “Well, I should hope so, Amamiya-kun.”

   Ren swallowed. “Don’t play dumb,” he said in a low voice. “Was that… _that_ … just a strategy? To throw me off?”

   “What, Amamiya-kun? I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific -”

   “ _You kissed me_ ,” said Ren, voice trembling. “You _kissed_ me and now you won’t even look at me. Was that it, was that your game? Did you want to win that badly?”

   “Holy shit,” said someone in the background, and someone else elbowed them.

   Ren’s eyes on him now, searing and searching and inescapable, were everything Goro wanted.

   Suddenly he couldn’t handle them; couldn’t take the heat of Ren’s eyes on his own, raking down him, burning through him and leaving his insides in ashes.

   He drew himself up and said, “Amamiya-kun, what the hell are you talking about?”

   “ _Don’t play dumb_ -”

   “Is this what you have to resort to?” Goro asked him, raising his voice and colouring it with  affront, so that the others could hear quite clearly. “You’re trying to take this from me, too? You lost, so now you’re going to make a spectacle of me in front of your team - in front of _my_ team? You have to sink to telling tales to excuse your own abysmal performance - spreading rumours like these?” He scoffed, eyes wide and hurting. “You’re low, Amamiya-kun; I know we haven’t spoken lately but I thought we were friends. I thought I was your friend. I never thought you’d try something like this, let alone to me.”

   Ren’s eyes had gone very, very round, and Goro pushed past him to join his teammates. “Let’s go,” he said, rubbing angrily at his face with his sleeve. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

   “Akechi-kun, are you -”

   “Let’s _go_ ,” he said, and they trailed uncomfortably behind him, leaving Ren alone with the rest of his team.

 

* * *

 

   After some twenty minutes of sitting in the corner and being told to stop sitting in the corner, Goro disappeared from Ravenclaw Tower and all its accompanying celebrations. They weren’t small, either; Ravenclaw hadn’t won the Quidditch Cup in some years, so the Cup itself had now been placed in a position of upside-down honour atop Rowena Ravenclaw’s statuey head.

   The diadem now read “(OBSCURED BY CUP) is man’s greatest treasure”, and everyone and their illegally-procured Firewhiskey found this an improvement.

   When Goro finally managed to slip out of the common room, he found himself on a familiar path, albeit one he hadn’t tread in some time. Before he had become a prefect and Amamiya a captain, they’d had to rely on Disillusionment Charms to find their way out of bed at night without being caught. To date, it was the only Charm that Amamiya was proficient in: they had always been much more Goro’s area of expertise, and Ren had on numerous occasions announced proudly that since Goro was so good at them, Ren had no need to learn any but for the one that would enable him to get to Goro.

   They leant on their titles now moreso than their magic to get away with their misdeeds, but out of habit or nostalgia or something similar Goro wound his wand around himself like he was twirling a ribbon and felt the familiar and extremely odd sensation of having an egg cracked over his head; he shuddered, and looked down to watch himself disappear.

   The Astronomy Tower was off-limits outside of class hours, but since Ren had learned that Goro grew up in the city and therefore had an unsated love of stars, he’d declared it their hideout. Goro wasn’t sure why he headed there now. Instinct, perhaps. Or wishful thinking.

   When he climbed to the top, however, he stopped. There was someone already in their usual seat, staring out at the night sky.

   Goro turned to creep away, but stumbled over a step; the figure turned sharply and called, “Goro?”

   Goro didn’t say anything.

   “I know you’re there,” said Ren. “I know that’s you.”

   “No you don’t,” said Goro.

   Ren cracked a small smile.

   “Yes I do,” he said, “Goro-shaped blob of invisibility.”

   “That could be anyone,” said Goro.

   “I know what your Disillusionment Charms look like.”

   “And what’s that?”

   “Nothing,” said Ren, and Goro finally broke and laughed.

   Still invisible, Goro moved to sit beside him, and together they looked up at the sky.

   “I’m sorry,” said Goro, at the same time Ren said, “Why aren’t you celebrating?”

   Ren grinned. “You answer first,” he said. “I have to bask in the fact that you actually apologised for a bit longer.”

   “Bastard,” said Goro.

   “Don’t ruin it, now.”

   Goro sighed. “I didn’t feel like it, I suppose.”

   Ren looked at him, sly. “Goro Akechi, are you actually feeling guilty about a win?”

   “What? Of course not, don’t be an idiot,” said Goro, frowning at him. Ren cracked up. “I just wasn’t in the mood, that’s all. I have other things on my mind.”

   “I thought you were sorry,” Ren said.

   “Not for _winning_. Don’t give yourself so much credit; we would have won regardless of… regardless.”

   “So you _did_ kiss me,” said Ren.

   “Were you starting to doubt?” Goro said, wry. “I’m quite good, aren’t I?”

   “You’re terrible,” Ren muttered. “Go on.”

   “What else is there to say?” asked Goro.

   “Well, what are you sorry for?”

   “I don’t know,” said Goro, cross. “It doesn’t happen often, so I’m somewhat at a loss.”

   Ren cracked up again.

   “Well, tell me why you kissed me,” he said.

   “You’ve answered that for yourself, haven’t you?

   “Have I?” asked Ren. He was staring at Goro again, or rather the space Goro occupied; it was unfair that even with nothing to set his eyes on his focus was still singular and utterly disarming, and Goro was glad Ren couldn’t see him look away.

   “Maybe you know me too well,” he said.

   Ren returned his eyes to the moon. It shone across his glasses, glinting silver.

   “Aren’t you still angry?” Goro asked.

   Ren shrugged, face unreadable.

   “I’m not very good at being angry at you,” he said.

   “You haven’t looked at me in weeks.”

   “I wasn’t angry,” said Ren.

   “Then -”

   “I don’t know.” Ren nudged the floor with his foot. “I was - something else. Not angry.”

   “That clears it up.”

   “Oh, ‘cos you’re so good at talking about your feelings.”

   “Why aren’t you angry with me?” Goro asked him, instead of addressing that. “You should be.”

   “Do you _want_ me to be?” asked Ren.

   “I don’t know.” It was true, he didn’t. Maybe fury - fury like he’d felt emanating from Ren at the end of the match, simmering somewhere deep in glowering eyes - was better than the indifference he’d faced.

   And when Goro had kissed him - what had he been expecting then…?

   Ren looked at his hands.

   “Tell me why you kissed me,” he said again. “I want to know.”

   “Isn’t it obvious?”

   “Maybe… But you _said_ you would’ve won anyway.”

   “Well, did you see the points?” Goro said, lofty.

   Ren winced. “I can still see the points,” he muttered, making Goro snicker. “Yeah. And you were confident. Going into it, I mean - I could tell.”

   “Aren’t I always?”

   “And you,” said Ren, “of all people, would never want a handicap.”

   “Thank you.”

   “Even for something you’re shit at,” Ren added.

   “I retract my ‘thank you’.”

   “So?” Ren asked again. Goro cursed him, in his mind if not with his wand. This was something Ren had always been stupidly good at - getting to the heart of the issue, of a person, even when Goro himself wasn’t sure where or what it was. “Why did you kiss me?”

   “Because I wanted you to _look_ at me,” Goro burst out, before he knew it himself.

   Ren’s eyes widened behind his glasses. Goro hated those glasses and was grateful for them in equal measure; Ren had confessed to him once that they were fake and he didn’t need them to see at all. _That’s just obnoxious_ , Goro had said primly, and Ren had laughed so hard he’d fallen out of his chair and pointed out that Goro still hand-pressed the hems on his robes.

   Whenever Ren was wearing them, Goro got the sense there was something _between_ the two of them, something that meant Goro couldn’t see clearly into Ren’s eyes. And recently, especially, this had gotten much worse, as Ren knew precisely how to angle them such that the light reflecting off the lenses would block his eyes from sight entirely - in this moment, Goro resisted the urge to take them off.

   “I missed you,” Goro said now. “I still miss you - and I couldn’t stand it being like that anymore. Even if you hated me, even if you screamed in my face - I just needed closure.”

   “Closure,” Ren repeated. “For what?”

   Goro kissed him again, and for a long moment there was no sound in the tower at all.

   “That was so weird,” Ren said, after they broke apart. “I can’t see what I’m kissing. I bet I look like a freak.”

   “That has nothing to do with me,” Goro sniffed. And before Ren could object: “You kissed me back.”

   “...Yeah,” said Ren.

   “And,” said Goro, “before the game. You kissed me back then, too.”

   Ren was quiet a moment. “Well, yeah,” he said finally. “I missed you too, you know.”

   Goro exhaled.

   “You know what they say about the opposite of love,” he said, smiling a little sadly. “I had to know.”

   Ren’s cheeks were a little pink. “Leave it to you,” he said, slightly shaky. “To turn a confession into some kind of - of - subterfuge, or something.”

   Goro laughed weakly.

   “And I’m not... mad,” Ren added tentatively. “Not really, not anymore. I was… And maybe I should be, on principle… And I wanted to be... but I guess I don’t really care. It’s kind of hard to care.”

   “You really have no sense of self-preservation.”

   Ren shrugged. “Maybe. But I also know you too well, remember? I knew there had to be… I don’t know. Something else.”

   “How wise of you,” said Goro.

   “And you wouldn’t sabotage the game like that,” said Ren. “It’s too cheap for you. The win wouldn’t mean anything, you wouldn’t’ve been happy with it.”

   “Thank you,” said Goro, who wasn’t sure if this was a compliment, but thought it best to try and turn it into one anyway.

   “ _And_ -” Ren suddenly smirked, which was never a good sign - “I mean, even if that _was_ what you were doing... it was a pretty Slytherin move, you know. So I _have_ to approve.” The silver Captain badge glinted off his green uniform.

   “Take that back,” Goro said, annoyed.

   Ren’s grin widened. “I’ve been saying for years you belong with me.”

   “In your House.”

   “Yeah, that.”

   “I don’t know, Amamiya,” said Goro. “I still think you would have made a fairly convincing Gryffindor,” and watched Ren’s mouth gape into an offended _O_. “You should be angrier.”

   “I am _now_ \- how _dare_ you -”

   “You know what I mean,” said Goro.

   Ren shrugged again.

   “It’s just a Cup,” he said, offhand.

   “It’s _not_ just about the Cup, and you know it. And you’re a shitty Slytherin - aren’t you supposed to have ambition, or whatever?”

   “I’m willing to let you have it this year,” Ren said, the picture of gallantry. “We’ve had it the past three. And we’ll have it again. You’re welcome to a taste of our glory now and then - we can spare it.”

   Goro snorted. “Your entire House is insufferable.”

   “House divisions are arbitrary,” said Ren.

   “Any other day I’d agree,” said Goro. “But not when we’ve just slammed yours into the dirt.”

   Ren rolled his eyes.

   “How long does this Charm last, again,” he asked.

   “The Disillusionment Charm? Not much longer,” said Goro, just as it faded. “Ah… good timing. Why do you ask?”

   “Nothing much,” Ren said, looking rather tenderly at Goro with searching eyes, and Goro felt his face grow quite warm all of a sudden. “Just missed looking at you.”

   Goro looked away.

   “I missed it too,” he said. “Don’t let that happen again, will you?”

   “I won’t, long as you stop being a git.”

   “No chance of that, I’m afraid,” Goro said drily, and Ren laughed.

   Ren’s eyes were still on him - he let his hair fall in a curtain over his face, but felt a warm gaze burn through it all the same.

   “I’m sorry,” Ren said. “The fight -”

  “It’s forgotten,” said Goro immediately. “I barely remember what it was about.” This was a lie - he remembered in perfect clarity the falling out they’d had, the look on Ren’s face most of all and the dreadful things he himself had screamed - but it was a lie he would be much happier to believe. The fight was a relic of what felt, at the moment, like a very distant past, and now, with Ren’s eyes on him once more, Goro was perfectly content to let it remain there, where it belonged. “I’m sorry, too.”

   Ren brushed his hair aside, and Goro’s eyes flicked back to him automatically. “For…”

   “Everything,” said Goro, and meant it. “I’m sorry I kissed you.”

   “I’m not,” said Ren. “I’d rather like you to do it again, if it’s all the same to you.”

   Goro snorted. “I _meant_ ,” he said, “for doing it like _that_. And for - talking like that, afterward, and making you feel like it was a - a trick, or something.”

   “Yeah, well,” said Ren, “it’s you, isn’t it? We’ve been friends for years - you’re not a Gryffindor, you know, and I’ve seen you do some pretty shady things to get out of it when you’re scared -” Goro smacked him - “and besides, it’d be pretty stupid if I expected you to be straightforward about something now. Especially something like this.”

   “Even stupider than normal,” Goro agreed, “which is saying something,” and Ren flicked his nose, and leaned to kiss him again.

   Goro stopped him.

   “What’s wrong?” asked Ren, looking a bit offended.

   “Nothing,” said Goro. “Just - take off those glasses, will you?”

   The corner of Ren’s lip quirked. “What, do you like my eyes?” he cooed.

   “Yes,” said Goro.

   “Oh,” said Ren, now flustered. “Oh, well, okay then.”

   He reached up to grab them off his nose, but Goro swatted his hand aside. “Didn’t you want me to -” and shut up when Goro slid them off his face for him. “Oh, okay,” he said again, in a much smaller voice.

   Goro slipped them into his own pocket.

   “Those are mine,” said Ren.

   “You can have them back later,” said Goro. “When I’m sure you’re looking properly at me again.”

   “You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” said Ren. He brushed the backs of his fingers against Goro’s cheek. Goro could see the moonlight filtering through his eyelashes; they were long and stupid and made his eyes look even nicer. “After tonight, I don’t think I could look away from you again if I tried, Goro - not ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> BEFORE anyone wants to come at me about my house assignments i will forewarn you that i have a 2.2k strong document that i wrote in a rabid mania containing only a BRIEF summary of my analysis and reasoning of each of them and their houses, individually, including morgana, who is a cat, and probably the same size as the sorting hat. why do i care so much? your guess is as good as mine. it's just the kind of pointless academic endeavour that (i flip my scarf) a ravenclaw like myself would pursue aahaha ha haha okay i am very tired in life generally please do not raise my blood pressure any further im begging
> 
> SOME BACKGROUND  
> gryffindor: makoto (6th year, prefect) & ryuji (5th year, quidditch team chaser)  
> ravenclaw: goro (6th year, prefect, quidditch team chaser), futaba (4th year), & yusuke (5th year)  
> hufflepuff: haru (6th year, prefect) & ann (5th year, quidditch team keeper)  
> slytherin: ren (5th year, quidditch captain and seeker). & morgana who doesn't count because he is a kneazle in this setting
> 
> twitter: [@corviiid](https://twitter.com/corviiid) (plz feel free to ask me about this au but if u engage me in an argument i'll combust while crying)


End file.
